Les D’Arcy was something of a bodybuilder when he was young, and old photos from the Second World War era show him shirtless and flexing his muscles. Les has since taken up ping pong, and he can show you a bagful of medals from tournaments he’s won. “Sometimes, the man who wins is the man who thinks he can,” he says, one of the many truisms he can recite, along with snatches of inspirational poetry. Les still lifts weights at the local gym to keep himself in shape for table tennis. He’s 89 years old.

“He’s crackers isn’t he?,” says Terry Donlon, Les’s friend and a relative youngster at 81. Terry also plays ping pong at a championship level, although lately it’s been difficult, what with the cancer coming back. He has trouble breathing and he has to stop the game occasionally to use his inhaler.

Still, Terry, along with Less and 2,074 other contestants from 51 countries, are good enough to go for the gold. They took part in the world over-80 ping pong tournament in Inner Mongolia: a rousing collection of pensioners, white-haired go-getters, surprisingly agile octogenarians and at least one sneaky-fast 100-year-old from Australia.

They are the cast of Ping Pong, a swiftly told British documentary that’s part sports story — we’re there for the match point at several close games — but mostly a portrait of the resilience of old age. Ping Pong introduces us to eight competitors and follows them through a tournament that they all want to win, but that in fact serves as a way to keep them fit, alert, engaged and, occasionally, cranky. “She’s a stupid cow,” one elderly woman says about her opponent, whose shots go by so quickly that she can’t even reach for them.

Ping Pong compresses this drama into 75 minutes, so there’s not a lot of time for dawdling. Director Hugh Hartford gives us quick sketches of characters such as Inga Hermann, 89, who was headed into the dementia ward at the nursing home until she began exercising the part of her brain that sends a paddle in front of fast-moving white balls, or Lisa Modlich, 85, who lives in Texas with a husband she married when she was 45 and he was 24. He was her “five-year Marshall plan,” she says, but 40 years later, he’s still around. He’s not a ping pong player himself: for recreation, he dresses in old West gear, with a six-gun on each hip, and fires a vintage rifle at targets outside their home.

They’re an inspiring lot, and while Ping Pong squeezes a bit of drama from their hunt for a world title, it’s more about the game than the results. “Forget ping pong,” says one spectator. “If I can stand up when I’m 100 I’ll be happy.”

They’re doing a lot more than that. Ursula Bihl, 89, the reigning world champion, tells her family not to worry as she heads to the Mongolian tournament. “If I die at the table, remember, that’s what I would have wanted,” she assures them. She adds, “But not so soon.”

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.